Armor for vehicles to protect them from a ballistic threat exists. Recently, armor assemblies formed of ceramic tiles encapsulated in a metal have been used.
However, these armor assemblies still have weaknesses. For example, gaps between individual tiles encapsulated in a material may be vulnerable to penetration by a ballistic projectile. Further, these armor assemblies are often challenging to manufacture due to the different properties of materials used to form the armor assemblies. For example, the ceramic tiles and the metal used to encapsulate the ceramic tiles may react during the manufacturing of the assemblies. The reaction between the materials may compromise one or both materials, thereby detracting from the performance of the armor assemblies. In addition, the ceramic tiles and the metal may have different coefficients of thermal expansion, and may expand or contract at different rates. The difference between coefficients of thermal expansion may form cracks and/or voids as the armor assembly cools during the manufacturing of the assembly, thereby detracting from the performance of the armor assembly.
Thus, there remains a need to develop new armor assemblies formed of composite materials and methods of manufacturing such composite materials.